Lake Living.32
Mostly Hessian Lake, at Bear Mtn State Park, with one image in the middle below showing a turtle-abundant lake at Storm King, with a bit of Andy Goldsworthy’s Storm King Wall rising up out of the water on this side of the lake 🙂
Mountains.42
Our farewell, this and the next post, to Bear Mountain, the state park and bridge over the Hudson named after it, and other things we saw during our short stay there a few months ago for our small-family gathering to celebrate memories of Mom :-).
Mountains.37
Above, the Bear Mountain Bridge with the mountain named Anthony’s Nose to its right, on the east side of the Hudson River. At the bottom, and in the gallery below, Bear Mountain Inn & the mist-shrouded Bear Mountain (on the east side of the river) as seen on the misty, drizzly afternoon of Sunday May 5th when Steve & I arrived. We were here for another personal celebration of our mother, who hiked us as teenagers across that bridge, where the Appalachian Trail crosses the Hudson River and immediately climbs to the top of the Nose, having already scaled Bear Mountain and various other peaks in both Bear Mtn Park & the neighboring Harriman State Park. To really focus on our memories of the trails and be close to Storm King (which, yes, we’ll be showing you also soon), we splurged to stay in this lovely old Inn – and were so happy that cousins Sam & Maria also joined for the Mom-celebration stuff, that Neal and Elizabeth came for an evening, and Chris for the Storm King day. Thanks, everyone and especially Mom who was certainly with us in memory and spirit :-).
Mountains, Museums & Memories
In the northwesternmost corner of Connecticut lies Bear Mountain, the tallest peak in that state. (Note that I don’t say “highest point,” because in fact there’s a higher point in CT but it’s on a mountain whose actual summit is in Massachusetts.) Over the summit of this mountain runs, of course, a section of the Appalachian Trail – which, for those of you perhaps unfamiliar with it, is a magnificent mountainous trail that runs along the spine of the rocky mountains in the coastal eastern states of the US, all the way from Georgia to Maine.
In the 1970s my mother and one of her dearest friends, also a single mother, took us all out on segments of the AT together several weekends a year. On this segment of the AT, called the Sages Ravine segment because of the river at the bottom which forms a natural border of sorts between the CT and MA portions of the trail (and at times, it seems, the actual border between the two states), our two families had a memorable spring hike influenced by late snowmelt and high water. We all survived that hike and went on to many more in the decades to follow. This August we returned in honor of our two mothers, now both sadly gone. Having hiked this before during spring flood season, we found it with our now-more-aged bodies much more enjoyable to hike it when the ravine was NOT flooded and when there was NOT snow on the north side of the mountain. And we did enjoy sharing memories of ourselves and our mothers, then and since.
My brother Steve and I then went on to North Adams and Williamstown, Massachusetts. There, we fondly remembered and walked, at least metaphorically, in our mother’s footsteps by visiting the absolutely fantastic Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art – which tells us it’s the largest museum of contemporary art in the US. (Many of the most amazing parts weren’t possible to photograph either by rule or because of what they are, like virtual-reality or experiential installations that just can’t be photographed…so what I show is the barest sample.) We also visited Mt Greylock, the highest summit in Massachusetts, at late sunset.
Despite my adopted California snobbery (higher mountains and all, out here, don’t you know…), I was really happy to be reminded how beautiful these green, rocky east coast mountains can be…and how difficult a rocky scrabble up a steep slope can be, even when the summit of that slope may not be all that high in feet above sea level 😊. Though the loss of parents is sad, I found it nourishing to share this time with family and friends who share these memories, as I find it nourishing to go on doing things I know my Mom would enjoy, and to send my thoughts to her when I do so. Hope you enjoy these photos; if you knew my Mom, hope it helps you remember all the great things you shared with her; and if not, that it helps motivate you to share other great things right now with those you care about the most 😊.
(so much world, so little time....) 